In a press conference on Monday, dozens of Attorneys General announced they were going after Big Tech companies for various antitrust violations.
The antitrust investigation will focus on Google and Facebook, and was put together by 50 Attorneys General in a bipartisan push against collusion and corruption from the Big Tech companies.
New York Attorney General Letitia James told the Wall Street Journal that she would be leading the investigation into Facebook:
I am proud to be leading a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general in investigating whether Facebook has stifled competition and put users at risk. We will use every investigative tool at our disposal to determine whether Facebook’s actions may have endangered consumer data, reduced the quality of consumers’ choices, or increased the price of advertising.
Ken Paxton, the Texas Attorney General, will be leading the antitrust investigation into Google, and opened the press conference, explaining why it had to take place:
While many consumers believe that the internet is free, certainly we know from Google’s profits of $117 billion that the internet is not free. This is a company that dominates all sorts of advertising on the internet, and searching on the internet… This is an investigation to determine the facts… the facts will lead to where the facts will lead.
Curtis Hill, the Indiana Attorney General, said he was “pleased that the process was being started”:
There is no doubt that the internet is the superhighway of information, and what we have found is that Google… is the one that is directing most, if not all, the traffic on this highway. It is important that we determine whether this traffic determination is being done in a fair manner. We certainly want to make sure that the internet has competition, and more importantly, that we are preserving innovation.
The Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge was keen to point out that her colleagues were “Republican, Democrat, men, women, black, white and hispanic,” and were all “standing together to protect the free market and competition, but most importantly, to protect the American consumer from this online juggernaut”; Big Tech are truly facing opposition from all sides of the aisle.
Sean Reyes, the Attorney General for Utah, noted that “there is a reason there are so many” of them working together:
In 2016, not only did we talk to Google, but we sent a letter to the FTC to re-open an investigation into Google’s alleged manipulation of search practices. We were very heartened when our EU colleagues took action, and we are even more emboldened today standing together with our colleagues from across the nation.
I was proud to launch the first antitrust and privacy investigation of Big Tech by an attorney general two years ago. I’m heartened to see a new group of attorneys general with the courage to stand up to these powerful companies and fight for citizens… Big Tech companies should be held accountable if they are violating our privacy or harming our children or killing innovation.
You can watch the press conference in full below:
National File has previously reported on the monopolistic behaviour of the Big Tech companies. The conservative activist, Laura Loomer, took the Big Tech companies to court for allegedly colluding to remove her from their sites – Loomer claimed that they wanted to “re-craft the nation into their leftist design.” We at National File hope that this new antitrust investigation will serve to put Big Tech in their place.